Quiet Sun + Peter Gabriel + Peter Hammill + TalkTalk + Japan + The Glitter Band + Matching Mole + 801 add up to Random Hold

According to their website that is.

Not quite how I would describe Random Hold, mind.

Anybody remember them? It wouldn't be surprising if you didn't since I think they sold about 5 records (and I bought two of them!) What started as experimental group (so popular that they once abandoned a gig and took the tiny audience down the pub instead - I've been in a band that good!) turned into a darkish mix of...well all sorts of things.

Active in the late 70s/early 80s, their music was a kind of bridge between prog-rock and the more experimental end of post-punk. "Proggy New Wave with balls" I've seen them described as somewhere. They toured with Peter Gabriel around 1980 and guitarist David Rhodes went on to join Gabriel's band.

Listening to the Hammill produced self-titled EP or the LP "The View From Here", they now feel a little dated, but there is a lot to like. There is a mix of those creepy post-punk paranoid landscapes with sometimes stabbing King Crimson guitar and cold keyboard washes. The influence of Peter Gabriel 3 and early 80's Hammill is clear, as is that of Joy Division.

"Meat" could have been taken straight from Crimson's "Lark's Tongues...", other tracks remind me of Magazine playing Eno tracks, yet others have a Euro Prog-rock feel, then there's "Fear Eats The Soul" which, with simple, portentious piano, unsettling synth sounds and voice samples makes me think of, dare I say, Radiohead, as does "Film Music".

All these musical influences (and each track makes you think of something different) don't always sit together comfortably, but they were a good and interesting - if short lived band.

Anyway I'm posting this because I was reminded of Random Hold whilst reading of the sad death a couple of weeks ago of one of their founder members, David Ferguson, at the age of 56. The Guardian obituary is here.

RIP David.